03-20-2004, 05:23 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-20-2004, 05:26 PM by Sir_Die_alot.)
I've never been into a strat site but with something like a 4:1 win/loss rec and my favorite race being zerg I think I can offer some useful advice. :D
First are the obvious things: every worker on a different mineral patch and pump out workers like crazy throughout the game. You can't have too many minerals or enough gas! (No not that kind keep your lima beens out of this!)
Something less obvious is hide your defensive structures. Most newbs like to put them out front because they do damage so they can take it. Right? Wrong! They are easily swarmed and die. Put them behind some other building. For instance I nearly always build at least 1 sunken for early rushes (I play team where this is very common). I build my spawning pool 2 squares away (the size of a sunken) from my hatchery and put the sunken between them (careful about larva if you build your pool south of your hatch). Now it is more difficult to swarm and kill. For even more rush defense (especially versus zerg and protoss) have a couple zerglings surround and guard the sunken. Don't get carried away with defense though, zerg's power is offense. If you have more than 4 sunkens (this is pushing it still) you have over done it. One exception to this is you have become the "decoy". Sometimes teams will really focus on one player sending masses of troops trying to kill that one person. If this is you then build defense like crazy, it takes skill but if you get good at playing the "lame duck" who "almost" lost the fight you can often win the game by giving your allys time to build up.
Another common newbie mistake is having only a couple hatcheries. Zerg win by sheer numbers. Often I've won because my enemy and I came out of a battle with even losses, but because zerg can pump out troops so quickly I was able to rebuild my army faster.
Good combinations:
Mutalisks and zerglings. Surprisingly effective because of the AI auto targeting. Works great if someone went hard one type of unit (like mass hydralisks).
Ultras and defilers. Mix in some cheap zerglings as battle fodder. Unless the enemy has enough air to smash your base faster than you his he is in deep trouble. If you really cought someone off guard ultras alone can do the job alone sometimes. (great for terran with mass infantry)
Hydras + lurkers. Almost impossible to take from the ground if used properly. Still difficult from the air. If you have defilers this is a very powerful army even very late game.
Some things to look out for:
Mass/early corsairs. They eat up your overlords quite quickly. Keep a devourer or 2 near your overlords and/or spread them out. Often there is a dark templar follow up (no overlords often means no detection for zerg) so keep a spore colony around areas where you would need detection for such cases.
Terran tanks. Keep an eye on terran don't let him mass these. Once a good terran gets tanks going it's very hard to push off as zerg. Queens can take out key tanks with broodling but by themselves are not an adequate defense against them. If terran has a good tank push going often your only recourse is to cripple them with a lurker drop/muta run through their own base.
Marines and medics. Often a key part of tanks (above). If the game is late enough plauge is good for confusing the medics (which one to heal? They are ALL taking damage)
Mass zealots. Wach for it because it can be hard to fend off. If you see it coming get a few more sunkens (behind buildings as above) and try to work tward lurkers. Also have some zerglings to delay the zealots and give your sunkens more time to work their magic.
Good zerg rushes to use:
As someone else said the 6 pool. It's cheesy (not as much so as it used to be) but works sometimes, especially with a zerg ally so you have 12 zerglings going. If you are rushing another zerg player bring 1 or 2 drones and build sunken colonies on his own creep. (yes you can do that!)
Lurkers. Getting lurkers before someone is ready is probably one of the most frequent reasons for a zerg win, especially versus terran. If they have no detection ,and you have a clear path, stick them in range of their mineral workers. That will be the end of the game 19 games out of 20. Also protoss players often follow the hide the defensive structure rule (not wrongfully mind you) and puts them behind their gateways. Plop your lurkers in front of the gateway out of range of the photon cannon and you can kill his gateways. On island maps (or maps with small rivers between starting areas) if you have someone close to you the "slow ass drop", as a friend of mine calls it, is to put your overlord right next to the waters edge on your island, get lurkers and overlord carry, load the lurkers, and slowly fly to a nearby island.
Mutalisks. Cheap, fast, and strong in numbers. Getting them early can give you some good hit and runs on workers or other units (good way to take out unguarded tanks). I wached a replay once where someone hit and ran a whole mob of marines and medics and by the time they got to the zerg's base there weren't marines left for the attack. :lol:
Nydus canal. Great for an enemy zerg. Paracite one of his units and build a canal somewhere in the back of his base that it won't be noticed (if you are blue next to a mineral, brown can be just about anywyere, otherwise use your own judgement) have a big mob of ground units ready to jump in the canal when it's done. Bring a defiler for more evil. To really catch them off guard have an ally do a frontal attack at the same time so they are occupied there and don't notice you are thrashing the back of their base. If you have burrow, burrow a zergling or something. Often they won't build defenses they will just wach for another paracite but the zergling can see. :) This also works with a terran ally that can scan a region for you (you just need vision of that creeped area).
That's all I can think of off the top of my head but should be more than enough to play with. You know my accounts feel free to find me for a game. If nothing else we can smash some comps and I drive you crazy telling you every bad move you make. B)
First are the obvious things: every worker on a different mineral patch and pump out workers like crazy throughout the game. You can't have too many minerals or enough gas! (No not that kind keep your lima beens out of this!)
Something less obvious is hide your defensive structures. Most newbs like to put them out front because they do damage so they can take it. Right? Wrong! They are easily swarmed and die. Put them behind some other building. For instance I nearly always build at least 1 sunken for early rushes (I play team where this is very common). I build my spawning pool 2 squares away (the size of a sunken) from my hatchery and put the sunken between them (careful about larva if you build your pool south of your hatch). Now it is more difficult to swarm and kill. For even more rush defense (especially versus zerg and protoss) have a couple zerglings surround and guard the sunken. Don't get carried away with defense though, zerg's power is offense. If you have more than 4 sunkens (this is pushing it still) you have over done it. One exception to this is you have become the "decoy". Sometimes teams will really focus on one player sending masses of troops trying to kill that one person. If this is you then build defense like crazy, it takes skill but if you get good at playing the "lame duck" who "almost" lost the fight you can often win the game by giving your allys time to build up.
Another common newbie mistake is having only a couple hatcheries. Zerg win by sheer numbers. Often I've won because my enemy and I came out of a battle with even losses, but because zerg can pump out troops so quickly I was able to rebuild my army faster.
Good combinations:
Mutalisks and zerglings. Surprisingly effective because of the AI auto targeting. Works great if someone went hard one type of unit (like mass hydralisks).
Ultras and defilers. Mix in some cheap zerglings as battle fodder. Unless the enemy has enough air to smash your base faster than you his he is in deep trouble. If you really cought someone off guard ultras alone can do the job alone sometimes. (great for terran with mass infantry)
Hydras + lurkers. Almost impossible to take from the ground if used properly. Still difficult from the air. If you have defilers this is a very powerful army even very late game.
Some things to look out for:
Mass/early corsairs. They eat up your overlords quite quickly. Keep a devourer or 2 near your overlords and/or spread them out. Often there is a dark templar follow up (no overlords often means no detection for zerg) so keep a spore colony around areas where you would need detection for such cases.
Terran tanks. Keep an eye on terran don't let him mass these. Once a good terran gets tanks going it's very hard to push off as zerg. Queens can take out key tanks with broodling but by themselves are not an adequate defense against them. If terran has a good tank push going often your only recourse is to cripple them with a lurker drop/muta run through their own base.
Marines and medics. Often a key part of tanks (above). If the game is late enough plauge is good for confusing the medics (which one to heal? They are ALL taking damage)
Mass zealots. Wach for it because it can be hard to fend off. If you see it coming get a few more sunkens (behind buildings as above) and try to work tward lurkers. Also have some zerglings to delay the zealots and give your sunkens more time to work their magic.
Good zerg rushes to use:
As someone else said the 6 pool. It's cheesy (not as much so as it used to be) but works sometimes, especially with a zerg ally so you have 12 zerglings going. If you are rushing another zerg player bring 1 or 2 drones and build sunken colonies on his own creep. (yes you can do that!)
Lurkers. Getting lurkers before someone is ready is probably one of the most frequent reasons for a zerg win, especially versus terran. If they have no detection ,and you have a clear path, stick them in range of their mineral workers. That will be the end of the game 19 games out of 20. Also protoss players often follow the hide the defensive structure rule (not wrongfully mind you) and puts them behind their gateways. Plop your lurkers in front of the gateway out of range of the photon cannon and you can kill his gateways. On island maps (or maps with small rivers between starting areas) if you have someone close to you the "slow ass drop", as a friend of mine calls it, is to put your overlord right next to the waters edge on your island, get lurkers and overlord carry, load the lurkers, and slowly fly to a nearby island.
Mutalisks. Cheap, fast, and strong in numbers. Getting them early can give you some good hit and runs on workers or other units (good way to take out unguarded tanks). I wached a replay once where someone hit and ran a whole mob of marines and medics and by the time they got to the zerg's base there weren't marines left for the attack. :lol:
Nydus canal. Great for an enemy zerg. Paracite one of his units and build a canal somewhere in the back of his base that it won't be noticed (if you are blue next to a mineral, brown can be just about anywyere, otherwise use your own judgement) have a big mob of ground units ready to jump in the canal when it's done. Bring a defiler for more evil. To really catch them off guard have an ally do a frontal attack at the same time so they are occupied there and don't notice you are thrashing the back of their base. If you have burrow, burrow a zergling or something. Often they won't build defenses they will just wach for another paracite but the zergling can see. :) This also works with a terran ally that can scan a region for you (you just need vision of that creeped area).
That's all I can think of off the top of my head but should be more than enough to play with. You know my accounts feel free to find me for a game. If nothing else we can smash some comps and I drive you crazy telling you every bad move you make. B)